


Journey of an Ex-Maverick

by FSO_Studios



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Eventual Happy Ending, Fantastic Racism, Free-Will Maverickism, Gen, Going Maverick, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reploid/Human tensions, Soul-Searching, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:44:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FSO_Studios/pseuds/FSO_Studios





	1. Chapter 1

**MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 - 5:00 PM**

Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty… Forty-one. Two. Three. Four. Five. Multiply all of that by twenty… Nine hundred units in total. I mark the end result down on my clipboard, put it off to the side, and rush downstairs to help my colleagues get all of this Force Metal out of the truck. Each of us carries five units at a time, hopefully getting it all sorted and unloaded within the next hour. By then, work will let out and we should all be able to go home.

I scan the pieces of metal in my hands. Two Power +3’s, one Armor +5, one Eagle Eye, and one Minus Metal 10. Since over half of them are stat-boosting Force Metals, I don’t have to make as many trips between sorting stations. I should probably be thankful for the Minus Metal -- without it, I might be more likely to succumb to Force Metal’s eroding qualities. But regardless, I keep going, hoping to get extra pay from weeks of overtime.

...Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Akari. LRPN-012 “Akari”, to be precise. I was built, tested, activated, and put to work in Lagrano, an industrial city on Gigantis Island. I work in a Force Metal production facility alongside several Reploid colleagues, many of whom were built in the same facility I was. For some reason, the facility’s been closed down recently, so now we’re starting to work with Reploids from different areas. Most of the new workers are from Giga City, the capital of Gigantis Island, with a few others from less populated areas like Tianna or Melda.

I put the rest of my load into its sorting station, then head back to the truck to unload more. Along the way, I run into one of my coworkers and my closest friend, Miran. She’s struggling to carry a load of high-erosion Force Metal. Come to think of it, she was probably carrying a lot more high-erosion metal than the rest of us today… I can’t stand to see her struggle like this.

“Here,” I say, taking the top two units off of her stack. “I’ll help you out.”

“Thank you,” Miran sighs in relief. “I swear, if I hadn’t carried in a lot of neutralizing metals yesterday, I’d probably have gone Maverick by now.”

“Can you really go Maverick by coming into contact with too much Force Metal erosion? I always thought that was a myth.”

“Hm… I don’t know. On the one hand, I know it can really do a number on your systems. I’ve heard of Reploids being moved off the production floor because they’ve been exposed to so much erosion. But I don’t know if that’s because they’re at risk of going Maverick, or if it’s just because their systems are too weak from withdrawal to keep working.”

“Probably the last part. I mean, I’ve been feeling really tired and sluggish over the past few nights. It’s probably because I’ve been working so many overtime shifts, and the erosion’s starting to get to me.”

Miran turns to smile at me. “You oughtta take a break sometime. You deserve one.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I crack a weak smile back at her. “But for now, I still wanna get that overtime pay, and maybe a promotion if I work hard enough.”

“OK, Akari. You keep doing your thing.” And with that, Miran empties her load and heads back to the truck to get more. I follow her, making a mental note of what types of metal I unloaded so I can mark it down later.

As I drop off more units of metal into the sorting stations, I take note of the drone-like Mechaniloids in the stations that flit about, taking one unit at a time and dropping it into chutes based on the exact nature of the metal. I wonder whether or not they’d be capable of going Maverick from exposure to erosion, especially the ones that deal with more erosive metals like Full Specs +10. Either someone’s been putting them to rest behind the scenes and replacing them with new Mechaniloids, or they’re just incapable of going Maverick from exposure. If that were the case, they must be equipped with some sort of prevention measure like Minus Metals. But as far as I know, none of us Reploids have Minus Metals or other methods of preventing overexposure to erosion. So maybe the whole “going Maverick from erosion” thing is just a myth, like I told Miran.

But let’s say that Reploids actually can go Maverick from overexposure to Force Metal. If that were the case, then why don’t they just get humans to do everything in the Force Metal production process? After all, they can’t go Maverick because they have no computer systems to corrupt. That is, unless you’re like that one self-hating human who wanted to upload his consciousness into a Reploid body so he could join up with a group of free-will Mavericks… I don’t know what happened to him. Did he actually go through with it, or did he change his mind because he knew what a dumb idea it was? Whatever. I’m starting to go off-topic.

Anyway, if erosion from Force Metal actually made Reploids and Mechaniloids go Maverick, why don’t humans just take responsibility for Force Metal production, and make sure any Reploids and Mechaniloids involved have the proper safety measures in place if they choose to work in the industry? But that doesn't seem right. After all, one of the main uses for Force Metal is Reploid research and development. So why shouldn’t Reploids be in charge of the industry, since they’re the ones who should be the most concerned with how Force Metal is used?

...All of a sudden, the myth starts to make sense. Humans probably want most of the control over Force Metal, but since it primarily benefits Reploids, they can’t really use it to its full potential. So they put out the myth that Reploids and Mechaniloids can go Maverick from handling too much Force Metal. That way, not only do they get to control most of its use, but they also use the myth to restrict Reploids’ access. That doesn’t stop companies from hiring Reploid workers like me, though.

Now that I think about it, Maverickism as a whole seems to be shaped mostly by human definitions. After all, I’ve never seen a Reploid who mostly poses danger to other Reploids being called a Maverick. It’s always only if they’re dangerous to humans. At least today, not many Reploids are accused of Maverickism as there were a century ago. But human concerns are still the defining factor in whether the case gets handed over to the Maverick Hunters… which were founded by humans in most jurisdictions, even though Reploids form the vast majority of their ranks. I know it’s because Reploids have more possibility of being revived after death, but something tells me that the Hunters’ human founders thought of Reploids as inherently more disposable because of that fact.

Maybe I’m just overthinking this whole thing. After all, I was only trying to figure out the logic behind allowing Reploid workers into Force Metal production plants if there was a risk that we could go Maverick. I didn’t intend for myself to go into the details of Maverick Hunter organization and its implications. I especially didn’t intend to imply that humans wanted control over our every action. After all, it’s not the 22nd century anymore. Ever since the risk of contracting the actual Maverick Virus dropped to less than 1%, relations between humans and Reploids drastically improved. As a result, most of today’s Mavericks actually want to cause harm to humans, as opposed to humans assigning that label based on arbitrary reasoning.

Suddenly, I hear someone whistling to get my attention. I turn around to see another coworker of mine. He’s one of the newer workers from Giga City. I don’t remember his name, but I recognize his armour. “Yo, Akari,” he says. “You falling asleep on the job or something? Or is the erosion getting you down?”

“No, it’s OK,” I answer. “I was just thinking about things.”

“Things? Like what?”

I take a deep breath to collect my thoughts. “You know how people say that being exposed to too much Force Metal erosion can make Reploids and Mechaniloids go Maverick?”

“That’s not true. I mean, it makes your systems weaken after a while, but it doesn’t cause Maverickism.”

“Yeah, well, I was thinking about how maybe that myth started going around because humans wanted control over Force Metal. So they put out the myth in order to keep Reploids from doing anything with it, even though none of us have gone Maverick despite working in Force Metal production ever since we got out of the testing facility.”

My coworker’s face lights up. “Whoa, I didn’t know you were into politics like that.”

“I’m not trying to get into politics. I’m just trying to figure out why they put out that myth. Unless people are so misinformed about Maverickism that they think sluggish systems make us hell-bent on taking over the world…”

“Listen,” my coworker tells me. “I know things have gotten a lot better over the years with regards to human-Reploid relations. But things aren’t perfect yet. And I think you know this. After all, you were on to something when you said humans wanted to control our access to Force Metal.”

“I was?”

“Yeah. You seem to be aware of how the broken relationship between humans and Reploids affects us, even to this day when the Maverick Virus is almost fully eradicated.”

I blink in surprise. “Come to think of it, I was actually thinking about that along with that myth. I don’t know how you knew I was thinking about that…”

“Just a wild guess.” He smiles awkwardly while rubbing the back of his helmet and shifting his weight to one side.

“So what do you want me to do about this? You seem like the type of guy who has good ideas about this kind of stuff.”

My coworker pulls out a business card from a storage compartment in his armour. “You should come to one of our meetings. We discuss this stuff all the time. Back when I lived in Giga City, I even helped this group lobby the government into enacting more Reploid-friendly legislation.”

I take the card and look it over. There’s a simple, stylized logo of a Reploid and human shaking hands with one another. A line of text underneath reads _Integrated Circuitry - est. 2173. Dedicated to building positive human-Reploid relations and progressing toward a better future together._ There’s also a phone/comm number and address. I flip it over to see a hand-written list of meeting dates and times for the next two weeks. “Thursday looks like a good day,” I say to my coworker as I hand the card back.

“You can keep that card,” he answers. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll become a regular member. They’re really accepting of new people. I’ve only been there for two weeks, but I’ve already gotten to know everyone’s name, job, and even some of their hobbies and interests.”

“Sounds great. What’s your name, by the way?”

“Name’s Aldrich.” Aldrich extends a hand toward me, which I shake. His handshake has much more enthusiasm than mine, with a stronger grip and quicker pumps. “I’ll make sure to introduce you to everybody in our chapter. I can guarantee you’ll make friends within the first week.”

Just then, a siren wails in the distance. The sound of machinery fades to a dull roar as most of it shuts down. Workers finish sorting out the stacks of metal in their arms before moving out to punch their cards. The back door of the shipment truck closes before it drives off. The unloading bay door also closes with a long, drawn-out creak. Somebody has to fix it one of these days...

“See you tomorrow,” Aldrich says before making his way to the exit along with everyone else in the unloading bay.

“You too,” I answer. “Nice meeting you!” With that, I head back up the stairs to get my clipboard and leave.

Miran stays behind to wait for me. “So what were you guys talking about?” she asks as I come back downstairs.

“Aldrich wants me to go to this meeting.” I pull out the card and show it to her. “Ever heard of this organization?”

“Integrated Circuitry… Yeah, I’ve heard good things about it,” she answers. “Although I hear there are only three chapters on Gigantis Island -- Giga City, Onovan, and now here in Lagrano. Still, it’s good to hear that it’s expanding, especially in a country with more Reploids than humans.”

“So are you gonna come with me on Thursday after work?”

“No, I can’t. Got something else going on Thursday. But I’ll come with you on another date. That is, if you still wanna go back after your first day.”

“Nice. I’ll make sure to tell Aldrich the next time I see him.”

“Sweet!” And with that, Miran turns around and heads towards the exit to punch out and go home. I’m tempted to stay behind and ask the supervisor if I can take another overtime shift. But maybe I should take a break and save myself the erosion exposure… Yeah, I should. I deserve it. I take one last scan through the numbers on my clipboard, drop it off at the supervisor’s office, and go back to punch my card and head home.


	2. Chapter 2

**THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 6:00 PM**

The siren wails, signalling the end of another workday. This time, instead of going home or working overtime, I’m going with Aldrich to an Integrated Circuitry meeting. He’s standing at the bottom of the staircase, waiting for me to gather my things so we can leave.

“You ready?” he asks as I come down.

“Almost. Just gotta hand over these results to the supervisor, then we can go.”

“Cool. I’ll be out in the parking lot, next to a green Ride Chaser. See you in a bit.” He heads to the exit, tapping his fingers against his side as he walks. 

I turn in the opposite direction and head towards my supervisor’s office. I was hoping he’d actually be available for conversation about my overtime work, but just like always, he’s out, and probably will be for another hour. Not like it matters, anyway. Aldrich would probably get impatient if I ended up talking. So I just drop the clipboard through the slot in the door, then turn around and leave. 

Upon exiting, I see Aldrich standing right at the entrance with his Ride Chaser beside him. I was under the impression that he was going to wait where all the other Ride Chasers were parked and I would have to go to him, but instead, he comes to me. I wasn’t expecting him to do that, but it’s certainly a nice gesture.

“Ready to go?” he asks, getting on his Ride Chaser and starting it up. He scoots forward in his seat to allow me more room in the back.

“Yeah.” I get on behind him, holding on tight as we set off. We travel down a long stretch of almost-empty road punctuated by a few disconnected houses. A thick cloud hangs low above our heads, with the setting sun peeking out and giving off a soft orange glow. The air reeks of smelted Force Metal, but there’s also a hint of rain in there. The wind blows against the side of my face as we travel along the road at almost full speed. It seems as though nothing can stand in our way… that is, until we come across an unfamiliar sign at the side of the road.

Aldrich stops the Ride Chaser and gets off to investigate the sign. Then he comes back to me with a worried look on his face. “It says we have to take a detour in order to get downtown. Doesn’t say why, though.”

I don’t remember there being a detour sign on the side of the road. It was probably put up this afternoon while we were at work. But why would it be here without saying anything else? Usually, when someone puts out a detour sign, they’d tell people why it’s there and for how long. But then I remember where we are, and what happened recently.

“I think it has something to do with the Lagrano Reploid production facility closing,” I say. “If we didn’t have to take a detour, we’d pass right by it. But they’re probably trying to investigate it without stirring up too much attention. That’s why there’s nothing saying why there’s a detour or how long it’ll last.”

“Oh, you’re right…” Aldrich looks into the distance. There’s a police blockade a few hundred metres away, accompanied by flashing lights and wailing sirens. “Yeah, there’s definitely something going on down there. And they probably don’t want anyone to find out yet. Thankfully, I’ve taken the alternate route before. We're gonna be a bit late, but I don't think they'll mind."

“We should probably get going right away. The cops are probably going to get suspicious if we hang around here too long.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.” Aldrich starts up the Ride Chaser, and we continue on our way. There are more houses on the road now that we’ve gone further away from the industrial zone, and the clouds have lifted as well. This is a good sign that we’re getting closer, but we still have a long way to go. I figure we should start talking about something to keep us occupied. I pause for a while, trying to think of a good conversation topic.

“So, uh… Aldrich,” I begin, shouting over the sound of wind and the Ride Chaser’s motor. “You said you were able to convince the people in Giga City to do something because of Integrated Circuitry. Can you tell me more about it?”

Aldrich glances behind himself to look back at me, smiling upon hearing my question about Giga City. “Sure! This was probably one of our biggest accomplishments since becoming the first chapter on Gigantis. We lobbied to require training courses for Reploid repair technicians to include a segment on proper conduct with us. Which basically just sums up to not asking us about Maverick incidents unless we’re at risk for the virus, not to assume every Reploid is at risk for the virus, making sure we’re given changelogs if they have to go into our cognitive systems at all, et cetera. Basically just giving us more informed consent on stuff, not assuming we’re all out to ruin the world... you know what I’m talking about.”

I resist the urge to face-palm at how obvious most of these rules seem. “You would think repair technicians would know this stuff, right? Unless they’re humans who have never been around Reploids in their entire lives.”

“That’s what I thought, too, until I learned that some human technicians are just utter jerks to their clients. Some of them even use their position as an excuse to tell their clients so many horrible things.” 

“Well, this law should help solve that problem to some extent. Do you know if anything like that exists here in Lagrano?”

“To the best of my knowledge, no. But since most Reploid repair technicians are Reploids themselves, most people think these laws are common sense. And I’m willing to believe that most humans in that field aren’t like what I just described. But we still thought we should lobby the government to pass the law just in case some of those jerks decided to take the course. Maybe we could spread it to Lagrano, or even across all of Gigantis Island.”

“Do you think they’ll pass that law over here?”

“Probably.”

Just then, we get closer to the downtown area. Buildings are packed together so tightly that they’re almost chained to one another, only leaving space for roads and sidewalks. The natural glow of the sunset is almost completely drowned out by fluorescent street lamps and neon signs. Once we get into the main square, Aldrich slows down, allowing the sound of chatter and occasional pounding music to blend with the Ride Chaser’s motor.

“So where exactly is this place?” I ask, looking around at some of the buildings.

“It’s coming up soon,” Aldrich answered, gesturing towards the right-hand side of the street. “Just a few more blocks to go, then we’ll be there.” 

A minute later, we pull up next to a line of metal-plated buildings. Aldrich stops the Ride Chaser on the side of the road and we get off. I follow him into the middle building. The entrance looks empty, but I can hear people talking from the basement.

“So do we go downstairs for the meeting?” I ask.

“Yeah. From the sound of things, it’s already started.”

We go downstairs, where a group of seven Reploids and six humans are seated in a circle. In the centre of the circle, a holographic projector displays a news article about the Lagrano Reploid production facility closing. I caught a few snippets of the discussion they were having about it, but everyone stopped once we came in.

“Sorry we’re late,” Aldrich says, getting out two chairs and placing them in the circle. “We had to take a detour because they blocked off the road going to the facility.”

“It’s OK, Aldrich. I figured there would be at least one late arrival because of the blockade,” answers a human woman in a navy blazer. “Who did you bring with you?”

“This is Akari. She’s one of my coworkers.” Aldrich turns back to me. “She showed some interest in us a little while back, so I told her about our meetings.”

“Wonderful,” says the woman. “It’s nice of you to join us, Akari. My name is Nina. I’m one of the co-presidents of the Lagrano chapter of Integrated Circuitry. Unfortunately, our other co-president Kinley couldn’t make it today. She’s in Gimallia meeting with some other Integrated Circuitry presidents. They’re hoping to help establish a chapter over there.”

“Hm.” My eyes widen in curiosity. “That’s good. The more chapters there are, the better.”

“Kinley should be back by next meeting. Hopefully, you’ll be able to meet her then.”

“That is, assuming she sticks around,” grumbles one of the group members. Everyone else looks right at him after he finishes speaking. He’s a tall, bulky Reploid with beat-up armour and unkempt, shoulder-length brown hair. There’s a tattoo on his neck, but his hair is obscuring it, so I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. He’s slouched so far back in his chair that it looks like he’s about to fall. Judging by everyone else’s annoyed facial expressions, he seems to be one of the more unpopular members of the group. I don’t know if he’s projecting some sort of desire to leave the group onto me, or if he’s making a thinly-veiled threat.

“I’m quite certain Akari will stay with us for a long time,” Nina says, trying to de-escalate the situation. Then she directs us back to the topic at hand. “Anyway, we were talking about the Lagrano Reploid production facility incident. Shall we continue our discussion?”

The conversation picks up again. I want to participate, but I can’t help but feel uncomfortable around that one Reploid. What did he mean by "assuming she sticks around?" If he was just projecting a desire to leave, could he not just talk to Nina about it? And if he was trying to threaten me, why would he want to? I’ve never met him before today, let alone done anything that he wouldn't like. Either way, he creeps me out. So I try to keep a close eye on him, looking away whenever I think he might catch me.

I feel Aldrich tapping lightly on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about Harlow,” he says reassuringly. “He just has a bad attitude. Trust me. He complains about being here all the time. I don’t know why he still keeps coming if he’s only gonna complain.”

“Well, how long has he been here?” I ask. “If he’s new, he’ll probably get used to it.”

“Oh, he’s fairly new. He started the same day I did, two weeks ago.”

“Then maybe he needs more time to adjust. After all, two weeks is what? Only four to six meetings? You’d probably need more time than that to make your final decision about a group. He should probably talk to Nina about this, instead of making me feel uncomfortable.”

“He’s making you feel uncomfortable too? I guess you’re not the only one.”

“So you’re saying everyone here’s creeped out by him?”

“At least the people I talked to.”

“Hm.” I pause, taking another look at Harlow. He seems to be getting suspicious. “We should probably start discussing with the group. I don’t know what he’ll do if he catches us talking about him like this.”

“Good idea.” 

Aldrich and I stop talking to each other and start participating in the conversation. It takes us a little while to get fully caught up with everyone else, but eventually, we’re able to talk along with them. As we talk, I still sneak a few glances towards Harlow. He’s the only one who isn’t contributing anything to the discussion. In fact, he seems to be totally disengaged. 

The discussion continues on, mostly centring on implications for Lagrano’s Reploid community. Most of the members agree that because the facility is gone, other resources centring around Reploids will suffer as a result. But at the same time, we note that the Reploid population of Lagrano is much greater than the human population, so much so that even if you took away all the Reploids that were built in the facility, the Reploid population would still be greater. So maybe the concerns around resources may not be as great as we thought. Still, Nina thinks it would be a good idea to devote some of Lagrano’s budget towards Reploid resources, just in case we actually end up needing it.

After a few minutes, the meeting ends. Aldrich and I start talking again as we put our chairs away. “So what do you think about Nina’s idea?” I ask.

“I personally think it’s a good idea to save some money for Reploid resources, but maybe only about a couple thousand Zenny in the beginning,” he says. “Maybe once we see more of a threat to resources, then we can start adding more money. But because we’re getting more Reploids from within the rest of Gigantis Island, as well as maybe a few from abroad, we should be fine for now.”

“Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t look like we’ll be facing that much of a threat anytime soon.”

“Cool. So do you need a ride home as well, or can you get back on your own?”

“I can take the subway home. But thanks for the ride here.”

“No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow at work, OK?”

“OK.” And with that, I leave the building and head towards the subway station. It shouldn’t be that far away from here, but I’ll probably have to wait a bit longer. I don’t know if the investigation affects the entire subway service, or if it just affects the routes that go near that area. I don’t even know if the subway will be affected at all… Oh, well. If the subway service is delayed because of the investigation, at least I won’t have to worry about missing it.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 8:19 PM**

The downtown Lagrano subway station is more packed than usual. Certain lines are getting so long that I have to ask people to back up in order to cut through. The sound of people talking combined with the rattle of trains over tracks is almost unbearable, especially after coming in from the noisy downtown square. But suddenly, the noise cuts out as an announcement comes over the PA system. It says that certain routes would be out of service, which I presume is because of the investigation. I don’t have to take either of the two routes mentioned to get home, so I’ll be fine. But I can’t help but feel sorry for the people who were in the long lines I had to cut through. Those people probably had to change their travel plans to include an alternate subway route, and they might not actually get home until later because they had to wait for a less crowded train to arrive.

After a few more minutes of walking, I finally arrive at Route B’s loading area. There’s a bit of a line, but not much. I settle in, making sure I have the right amount of Zenny on hand to pay my fare. The train arrives, and I board along with the rest of the people in line. I try to find somewhere to sit, but the train’s packed to the brim, even though a lot of people were getting off. So I end up standing near the middle of the train, hanging on to one of the handholds.

As the train doors close, I notice a familiar face in the line. Not just a familiar face, but a familiar armour pattern… and what should have been a familiar neck tattoo. However, his neck is covered up by armour at the moment. But even without the visible tattoo, I still recognize him. That’s the same guy who made me super uncomfortable in the Integrated Circuitry meeting. What was his name again… oh, right. Harlow. I avert my eyes, but Harlow doesn’t seem to pick up on my cues. Instead, he comes closer, taking up the handhold next to me.

“Hey, you,” he says. “You’re that newbie who was at the I.C. meeting, right?” His voice volume is quieter than it was at the meeting, but the timbre is still fairly harsh.

“Y… Yeah,” I stammer, glancing around to see if I could escape this situation. But the train’s too crowded for me to do anything.

“Look, I’m not gonna do anything bad to you, OK? I just wanna have a friendly conversation,” Harlow says, noticing my discomfort. Somehow, I don’t think this conversation is going to be too friendly. But seeing as both fellow passengers and onboard security cameras would be able to see any wrongdoing, I decide to risk it and let him talk to me.

“All right,” I say, my voice quivering. “What do you wanna talk about?”

“Let’s start with the meeting. What made you want to join Integrated Circuitry? And don’t say it’s because of that Arnold guy or whatever his name is.”

“His name is Aldrich,” I say, somewhat irritated.

“Aldrich, Arnold, whatever. Doesn’t matter,” Harlow answers. “But hey, at least you’re not acting like a nervous wreck anymore. Anyway, without mentioning that guy, what made you want to come to the meeting?”

Well, I wouldn’t have heard of the organization if it wasn’t for Aldrich. But Harlow probably wanted to know what made me agree to the meeting in the first place. So I tell him. “You know that myth about Force Metal causing Reploids and Mechaniloids to go Maverick? Well, I was thinking about it a few days ago at work. And I wondered why people would want to put out that myth, even though the actual effects of Force Metal erosion seem like they’d hinder Mavericks instead of enabling them.”

A knowing glint flashes across Harlow’s eyes. “And I take it you know why they put out the myth?” he asks, turning his head towards me and lowering his voice.

“Because... the humans want to control our access to Force Metal?” Of course, I knew this was probably the main reason. But the way Harlow was talking to me made me nervous again. I could tell he was trying to hide this conversation from everyone else on the train as best he could, and I don’t know why he would want to hide it. Hopefully someone else would figure out what was going on and intervene if necessary. But from the looks of things, no one was paying attention to us. So I just continue, trying not to show any more visible signs of nervousness. “Then can we not just work to undo all of that? Isn’t that the point of Integrated Circuitry? I mean, they’ve probably brought that stuff up before. Surely they’d be able to run some sort of awareness campaign dedicated to debunking that myth. And if not, I can talk to them about it at our next meeting.”

“You don’t understand,” Harlow answers, leaning further in towards me. “Ever since we Reploids first came into the world, humans have always tried to interfere with our actions. The Force Metal situation is just the most recent example.”

“OK.” Once again, my voice and body start to quiver under pressure, and I force myself not to break eye contact. Harlow’s apparent disregard for personal space plus the fact that he’s trying not to let others hear our conversation makes me feel more and more uneasy about this whole thing. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel intrigued about what else he has to say, and how this conversation will end. So I try to keep it going. “Can you name another example?” I ask, trying to move the discussion along.

“Let’s start with the Maverick Hunters. You know who those are, right?”

“Yeah. Who doesn’t?”

“OK. So you know what they do, and why they were founded. Can you tell me about those in your own words?”

Suddenly, I remember when I was thinking about the Maverick Hunters at work. And at that time, my mind raced to some pretty wild territory. But from the way Harlow was talking about the Force Metal situation, he’d probably accept it. I decide to see whether or not that would be the case. While I tell him what I was thinking about that day, he nods with a satisfied smirk. Just like I predicted, he’s taking it all in without critique. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, though, so I tell him that this was probably just exaggeration.

“You’re not exaggerating,” Harlow says. “In fact, you’re bang-on. Humans have shaped the definition of Maverickism ever since the first cases started popping up, and they only ever declare a Reploid to be Maverick if they’re dangerous to humans. No regard for fellow Reploid life whatsoever, just humans!” He smiles at me, but I can’t tell right away if it’s sincere or scheming. But either way, he likes what I had to say about the Hunters. “I knew something good would come out of my visits to I.C.”

“Visits?” I’m confused at first, but then I remember Harlow’s behaviour and negative statements during the meeting. “Right… You did look like you didn’t want to be part of the group. You should probably talk to Nina about that.”

“Nah, I don’t think so. I was never really part of the group in the first place, nor did I intend to join full-time.”

“Then why did you join a little while ago?”

There’s a long pause as Harlow glances around to see how many people were on the train. It’s significantly less populated than when we first got on, although there are still a fair amount of people on. Since there’s now a full row of unoccupied seats behind us, Harlow sits down and motions for me to do the same. I’m surprised he’s not leaning in towards me like before, although that’s probably because we’re not in as crowded of a space, so he might not feel as pressured to hide something.

“I ‘joined’,” Harlow begins, making air-quotes with his fingers in order to imply he didn’t really join, “because I wanted to see if there were any people who had the same thoughts as I did about the state of Reploidkind in Gigantis. And lo and behold, I end up talking to you.” He pulls out a business card and presents it to me. “Based on the conversation we’re having, I think you’d fit right in with the rest of the folks in Antikythera.”

I look over the business card Harlow gave me. The logo in the centre reads “Antikythera”, with a stylized symbol combining a gear and a circuit board standing in for the first letter A. This must be the name of the organization Harlow truly belongs to. Looking at more details of the card, I notice there are two comm link codes, but no phone numbers, addresses, or websites. There’s not even a slogan or brief mission statement on the card. “This card seems pretty bare,” I tell him.

“Yeah, well, we only got started last month, and we didn’t have access to better graphics resources until a few days ago. We’re in the process of redesigning our business cards, but we can’t figure out which final design to use. Until then, you’re gonna have to settle for this one.”

I stare at the card for a little bit longer. Part of me is curious about Antikythera, and how it will compare to Integrated Circuitry. However, the other part of me thinks that it’ll just be a waste of time if there aren’t enough members involved. Eventually, I decide there’s no way of finding out unless I actually go. “When’s the next meeting?” I ask Harlow.

“Day after tomorrow,” Harlow answers. “8 PM. I’ll comm you the location that morning.”

“OK. But why on the morning of the meeting? Why not earlier?”

“Sometimes we have trouble getting good locations because we’re so new. But usually on the morning before, we know for sure whether or not we’ll be meeting in the place we picked out.”

“Ah, I get it.”

“My stop’s coming up soon, so you should probably give me your comm number.”

“OK.” I pull out a pen from my storage compartment and scribble down my comm number on the back of the business card Harlow gave me. I hand it back to him, and he accepts it, albeit with a dirty look on his face. I guess he didn’t want me ruining the business card I just gave him. But he gives me a fresh one, so there shouldn’t be that much of a problem. “I’ll see you at the meeting,” he says as he leaves his seat and grabs the handhold in anticipation of his stop.

While he’s standing, he deactivates the armour around his neck. Now that his tattoo is visible, I can see what it is a bit more clearly, even if it’s still covered up by some of his hair. It looks like… some sort of stylized wolf head? I don’t know if it’s supposed to be some kind of symbol or logo, or if he just likes wolves. It’s too late to ask him to explain what it means, though. The train stops, and he leaves, waving to me as soon as he lets go of the handhold.

I have to get off next, so I stand up and take hold of one of the handholds until the train stops. Just after I get off, I receive a comm link. I answer it, thinking it would be from Harlow. But instead, Miran’s chipper voice greets me from the other end. “Hey! How’d the meeting go?” she asks without giving me a chance to ask who it is.

“It was OK,” I answer. “We were mostly talking about the production facility’s closure, and what’s going on over there. I wasn’t all that invested in the conversation, though. Neither was Aldrich.”

“That’s weird. I thought you guys would have something to say about that.”

“We were going to, but we were preoccupied with something else for the first half of the meeting. By the time we got back into the conversation, everyone had said pretty much all there was to be said at the moment.”

“That sucks. But hey, at least you know what to talk about next time.”

“Yeah. They’ll probably have more details by next meeting, so we’ll probably be able to talk about it more.”

“Cool. How was the ride back home?”

“It was… interesting.” I’m not sure what Miran would have to say about my meeting with Harlow, so I try to keep things as vague as possible. “One of the guys in I.C. invited me to come to another group’s meeting. But the group’s pretty new, so I don’t know if I’m going or not.”

“A new group?” Now Miran’s just as curious as I was. “Does it have anything to do with what you went to?”

“Kinda. But I don’t know how similar it’ll be.”

“Wow, they weren’t telling you much about this group. Do you really wanna join? ‘Cause if they’re not giving you that many details, it might not be a good idea.”

“They gave me a business card, so I guess that’s a sign they’re a legit group.” I scan the front of the card and send it over the comm link to show Miran.

“Hmmm… There’s not much information on this card,” Miran muses, presumably looking over the card on her end. “You would think they’d include at least a cell phone number, just in case humans would want to join this organization.”

“Well, they did say that they were getting new business cards soon, so maybe they’d put a phone number on those ones.”

“Yeah, and maybe an actual address, too. Did they tell you where their meetings are?”

“They don’t have a fixed address yet. The guy who gave me the card told me they’d comm me the morning before the meeting so they could tell me where it’ll be. That way, everyone will know for sure where it is.”

“Y’know, for a new group, they could’ve tried to give themselves more of an impression of being organized. ‘Cause between the card and the address situation, they don’t look like they know what they’re doing at all. If I were you, I’d stick with Integrated Circuitry.”

“There’s no rule saying that I can’t be part of both groups at once. After all, the guy who gave me the card was part of I.C. as well.”

There’s a long pause before Miran starts talking again. “So are you actually gonna go to this meeting, even though they don’t look like they have their stuff together?”

“I might as well,” I answer. “After all, I did get the invite from an I.C. member. So even if it seems disorganized, they probably have some good group values.” I decide not to get into the specifics of what Harlow and I were talking about on the bus. Even though they appeared to be good ideas, Miran would probably take them out of context and make them seem worse than they were. So it’s probably better to leave it at that.

“OK. I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I know it’s probably just super disorganized, but I also have a feeling that this is a front for something. And I don’t want you to be hurt in any way.”

“If it makes you feel better, at least they told me when the meeting is. It’s gonna be this Saturday night at 8 PM. So even if they do end up doing something bad, there’s a greater chance people would be able to see what’s going on.”

“Hmm… OK.” Miran seemed a bit more convinced, but I still picked up a twinge of concern in her voice. “Just be careful out there, Akari.”

“I promise. Good night, Miran.”


End file.
